The H2020 project concerns the protection of public spaces and soft targets from terrorist threats. APPRAISE emphasises cross-organisation collaboration, particularly between public security (e.g., the police) and private security organisations, and cross-border information sharing.

In November, APPRAISE concluded its fourth pilot exercise. The pilot focused on a vehicle ramming attack at the entrance to a music festival to bypass the event security and enter the event itself; while previous pilots have simulated a coordinated attack, firearms threats, and a cold-weapon attack in public spaces.

Similar attacks could be used against critical infrastructure such as a hospital, a government building, a transport hub or a utilities provider's site. Furthermore, given that the private sector operates many critical entities, that may also contract out their security operations, the public-private security cooperation is particularly relevant.

To counter such threats, APPRAISE has developed an extensive suite of technologies ranging from online to physical sensors and data analysis, all enhanced with threat intelligence and AI-decision-making support. Online and text analysis tools monitor for social media and dark web threats ahead of an incident. Crowd analytics monitors for changes in crowd behaviour, panic and predicts people flows for incident detection and crowd management during an attack. People and objects are detected in CCTV footage, as well as restricted area entry. Further, APPRAISE has delivered audio sensors able to detect gunshots or screaming indoors or outdoors.

APPRAISE relies on data ingestion from multiple sources, information harmonization, threat monitoring, geospatial and intelligence systems, and information sharing with other organisations through the APPRAISE Operations Management system. Post-incident, drone footage of the damage is captured to identify hazardous areas for first responders, and mobile applications enable people nearby to report threats easily.

Videos of APPRAISE's pilots are available.